Patriots' Michel, McKenzie score three touchdowns each

Orlando — While Green Cove Springs Clay scored its one and only, meaningless, touchdown, American Heritage's Isaiah McKenzie held up his right index finger as he and a teammate posed for yet another photo on the sideline.

Heritage's celebration of its first state football championship Friday, a 66-8 thrashing of Clay in the 5A final at the Citrus Bowl, officially started with 4:55 left in the third quarter when coach Mike Rumph called timeout to give Sony Michel a proper farewell.

The senior running back, having already scored three times, walked off the field for the final time to a standing ovation from Patriots fans, and moments later, chants of "So-ny! So-ny!"

For all intents and purposes, though, they could have passed out championship T-shirts and medals inside Heritage's locker room at halftime.

The score was 40-0 by then, and the Patriots, who lost their only other championship appearance in 1998, knew their fun was just starting. Until Clay (10-5) finally scored with 4:38 left and converted a two-point conversion, Heritage flirted with breaking the state record for largest margin of victory (69) in a championship game.

The rout started with Torrance Gibson's 78-yard touchdown run on Heritage's first play from scrimmage, and included a pair of SportsCenter worthy plays.

First, McKenzie fielded a punt at his own 34, ran backwards to the 6 and eventually returned it to Clay's 4. Then, Gibson scrambled away from pressure from one side of the field to the other and fired a 34-yard touchdown to Dredrick Snelson with 18 seconds left in the half.

"It couldn't have gone any better," said Michel, who finished his career with 6,659 rushing yards, second in Broward County only to Blanche Ely's Tyrone Moss (7,105, 1999-02). "This feels wonderful. Sixty-six to eight — It looks like we won easily, but we worked for it. We came out from the start and we were focused. That was our mindset since we were at the hotel. This means a lot for us."

How much of a mismatch was this game? Consider that Heritage scored three touchdowns in the third quarter before running its second offensive play of the half.

Tavarus McFadden returned the opening kickoff of the third quarter 86 yards for a score, McKenzie ran back a punt 65 yards into the end zone and Michel rushed 13 yards for a score after defensive end Andre Jumper recovered a fumble. It was 59-0 with 9:06 left in the third.

"This is the biggest game in our whole school's history," Rumph said. "We knew that, and we wanted to start fast, and we did. We finished strong as well. I just can't say how proud I am of our kids and staff."

He added: "All through the playoffs, we've had an advantage in speed. We wanted to come and show it today. We had our best practice of the week this week, and I told our kids it doesn't matter what you do on Wednesday or Thursday."

Michel finished with 98 yards and three touchdowns on 14 carries, McKenzie had 200 all-purpose yards and three touchdowns and Gibson had 154 yards and a touchdown rushing and 161 yards and two touchdowns passing while completing nine of 10.

"They always say big players show up in big games, and those are my big players and they showed up today," Rumph said.

In his first season as Heritage's head coach, Rumph led the Patriots to 14 consecutive wins after an opening loss to Miami Central.

"I've only won one championship in my career and it was [as a player] with the University of Miami in 2001," Rumph said. "And I can honestly say this one right here is right there with it."